VISHWAROOP : A WONDERFUL FILM

A remarkable piece of sandalwood carving on display at our Prithviraj Road residence is of Shri Krishna administering Geetagnyan to Arjuna at Kurukshetra, and in that process giving him a darshan of His Vishwaroop.

 

 What is even more significant about this carving is the fact that the artist, hailing from Chikmangloor (Karnataka), has depicted on the back side of this excellent Vishwaroop carving not only several other scenes from the Mahabharata, like Draupadi Cheer Haran, and Bhishma Pitamah on his bed of arrows, sermonizing to the Pandavas, but also all    the Dashavataras, from Matsyavatara andKurmavatara to Krishna and Kalki.

 

A fortnight or so back I had seen in the media reports that a film produced and directed by Kamal Haasan, outstanding film maker of Tamilnadu, titled Vishwaroopam (in Tamil) and Vishwaroop (in Hindi) had precipitated some controversy. The result was that the Tamilnadu Government had first banned the film, and later on permitted it with some scenes muted. Ever since I had read these reports I had had a desire to see the film.

 

Last week, I had a welcome phone call from Kamal Haasan himself informing me that he was coming to Delhi for a few days and that on any of the days he was here he would like me to see his film.

 

On June 3rd, therefore, along with my family and some friends I had occasion to see this wonderful film, which I reckon, in both content and technical quality, is one of the best films I have seen in years.

 

The film is a spy thriller scripted also by Kamal Haasan, and shot mainly in three countries – in the U.S.A., in India and in Jordan.

 

Two days after the screening of the film Kamal Haasan came to our home for Sindhi curry and rice. After dinner I recounted to him an anecdote I had heard during my school days in Karachi.

 

The story is about a meeting Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini had during the Second World War, in which Hitler tells the Italian Supremo that the sins committed by the two of them would prove very costly for them after death. When Mussolini said to his friend that so far as he was concerned when his own end came he would go to the Vatican and seek help from the Pope who is believed to have a Pass for Heaven. Hitler asked him to commend to the Pope his name also. This anecdote is accompanied by a demonstrative exercise with a pair of scissors,  and a sheet of paper, in which the story ends up with both the two Fascist leaders landing in Hell, and only the Pope reaching Heaven.

 

Kamal Haasan enjoyed my demonstration, and was provoked to ask me : Have you read the Book “Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler” The Book is co-authored by Simon Dunstan, prominent author, film maker and photographer in the field of military history and Gerard Williams, renowned television journalist for over thirty years with the BBC, Sky News and Reuters.

 

TAILPIECE

 

Kamal Haasan, has sent me the book that he promised. The 350-page book is extremely well researched. Together, the two authors undertook seventeen research trips to Argentina where Hitler, according to them lived until 1962.

 

The back cover of this book sums up :

 

Based on years of research investigative journalist Gerard Williams and military historian Simon Dunstan believe that the escape of Adolf Hitler from Berlin & Operation Feuerland & was meticulously planned by the Nazis from 1943 onward. There is considerable testimony and evidence that suggests the operation was a success and that Hitler escaped to South America, where he lived until his actual death in 1962.

 

L.K. Advani

New Delhi

9 June 2013